The present invention relates to apparatus for processing animals for human consumption and more specifically to apparatus for chilling or heating the dressed carcasses.
The usual procedure for reducing the temperature of a freshly slaughtered animal from a normal body temperature of 95.degree. F. to 100.degree. F. is to support the dressed beef carcass, dressed hog carcass, dressed lamb carcass, etc. on a trolley with a gambrel to spread the legs and roll this carcass on an overhead rail system into a refrigerator in which a rapid circulation of chilled air is recirculated over the surface of the carcasses, until the surface temperature equilibrates with the inner temperature, or until the temperature of the heaviest muscle is reduced to 38.degree. F. at bone joint in the center of the muscle.
The ham is the thickest muscle on the hog and the time required by the conventional method is from 16 to 20 hours. The practical time is 24 hours as the work force in the killing department start at 6:00 A.M. and hogs would be ready to cut at 2:00 A.M. The cutting department must be supported by the curing department, pork packing department, etc. Due to labor resisting a 2:00 A.M. start, it has become a practice to start the cutting department at the same time as the killing department so that the coolers will be emptied to make room for the hot hogs coming from the kill. Therefore, the practical time is 24 hours.
The normal average shrinkage is 2% moisture loss in this prior art method of chilling. It is possible and practical to cut the ham off hot and eliminate the chilling process entirely from this cut which is 25% of the live purchased weight. Energy is expended, 2% shrinkage and 24 hours chilling from 100.degree. F. to 38.degree. F. and immediately cooking to temperatures varying with the type of hams, but ranging from 152.degree. F. to 165.degree. F. and then chilling the product back to 38.degree. F.
The usual time to smoke and cook hams, bone in, is about 12 hours in a conventional smokehouse.